BY BEN AMES, SENIOR NEWS EDITOR

ROBOTICS
Material Handling

The “Robotics as a Service” model provides
users with autonomous bots for a monthly
subscription fee, allowing them to swiftly
scale up their operations for peak season.

THE FIRST SNOWFLAKES OF THE SEASON ARE FALLing in many parts of the country, which means that warehouse operators and parcel carriers alike are hiring tens of thousands of temporary workers to cope with the demands of the peak holiday shopping season.

That task is proving harder in 2019 than in past years, as record-low unemployment rates are making it hard to hire enough workers to fully staff fulfillment centers. That’s forcing employers to brace for a blizzard of overtime bills and to crank up the thermostat on an already hot job market by raising wages.

However, providers of warehouse robots say there’s a better solution. Many robot vendors are now renting or leasing robots to their customers on a short-term basis, allowing DCs to ramp up their operations during peak periods and then scale back once the activity dies down.

There are several variations on the approach, but the most common is called “Robotics as a Service,” or RaaS. These services are usually offered on a subscription basis, with customers paying monthly fees instead of buying their robots outright. In exchange, vendors deliver autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) and then provide tech support as well as regular updates to the hardware and software that enable them to navigate DCs.

BOTS KEEP THEIR HEADS IN THE CLOUD

Companies that choose the RaaS option are typically logistics or retail operations that are already using bots in their warehouses but need additional support during peak periods or in times of severe labor shortages, according to 6 River Systems Inc., a Waltham, Massachusetts-based warehouse robotics startup that offers its “Chuck” series of AMRs on an RaaS basis.

For operations with existing robot fleets, commissioning additional units is a simple matter, vendors say. Once a warehouse technician switches them on, the newly arrived robots connect to a DC’s wireless network and link to critical information like an inventory floor map, the location of electrical outlets for recharging, and an interface with the building’s warehouse management software (WMS).